CGA, the software’s procedural modelling language, gets a range of new operations, including rectify, for aligning buildings at strict 90-degree angles, and resetGeometry, which can be used to repeatedly generate geometry from a single starting shape. You can find a full list of new CGA operations here.

In addition, CGA can now be used to read in data from text formats such as CSV files, and gains new material attributes to support PBR workflows.

Support for glTF export, and improved integration with Houdini, Maya and Unreal Studio
In related news, CityEngine can also now import or export in the increasingly popular glTF format for exchanging data for real-time 3D applications, including the PBR material attributes of glTF 2.0.

The Unreal Studio exporter has also been updated to support PBR materials, along with supporting native Unreal landscapes for terrain elevation data, and workflows that require metadata on meshes.

Of the DCC integrations, Palladio, the open-source Houdini plugin, gets support for Houdini Digital Assets, meaning that CityEngine rules can be embedded in procedural assets in HDA format.

In addition, the plugin no longer requires a licence of CityEngine for non-commercial use.

The release notes also list a new Maya plugin called Serlio as “coming soon”, although we aren’t certain if that’s separate to the old unofficial PRT4MAYA plugin: we’ve contacted Esri, and will update if we hear back.

Other changes include support for Oculus Rift headsets when exporting CityEngine scenes as VR experiences via Unreal Studio, along with a new integrated tool to batch replace actors and vegetation.

Now available as a single fully featured edition
CityEngine 2019.0 also marks a change of product versioning.

Whereas the software used to come as a $500 Basic edition and a $4,000 Advanced edition, which added Python scripting and VR export, there is now a “single full version … with all the capabilities of Advanced”.

At the time of posting, Esri’s online store still lists the old Basic and Advanced editions, so we’ve contacted the company to check the current pricing.

Pricing and availability
CityEngine 2019.0 is available for 64-bit Windows 7+ and Server 2008+, RHEL 6 Linux and macOS 10.13+. We’ll add pricing details when we have them.